Solar Solutions

Industrial Process Heating

Low temperature industrial process heat is a significant consumer of energy for several sectors including textiles, tanneries, food and beverage (including breweries), confectionary, laundries, heavy fuel oil storage, aluminum galvanization, and mining. MEI understands both the large scale solar heating, these applications/industries, as well as the integration between the two. From solvent extraction and electro-winning (SX-EW) to leaching, MEI has implemented successful projects and/or developed designs for such specific applications.

With significant experience in a variety of complex solar heating industrial applications, including retro-fit projects MEI is considers itself the leader in industrial scale solar heating for low-temp applications. The engineering and implementation of large scale and mission critical projects, such as the 25MWth PNUW solar heating plant required over 36,000M² of solar panels taking up 60,0000 m² of space, integrated with over 1,000m³ (1,000,000 Liters) of thermal storage capacity, integrated with over 75MWth of boiler capacity; with a fully automated control and monitoring solution. This project was implemented on a fast track basis, in desert conditions with high ambient temperature variability, and successfully commissioned to international contracting standards. Below is a concept design specific to the solvent extraction electro-winning (SX-EW) process for the copper mining sector.